Holloway’s father: Joran van der Sloot confession useless

Joran van der Sloot, the suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, was recently recorded making an apparent confession regarding the teenager’s fate. Natalee’s father, Dave, described the statements as an obvious publicity stunt unworthy of belief.

Dave Holloway told The Huffington Post that van der Sloot’s “confession” is useless to prosecutors in Aruba, the tiny Caribbean island where his daughter disappeared in 2005.

“They think they’ve got something when they really don’t,” Holloway said. “A lot of people don’t realize that in Aruba, a verbal or recorded confession is not valid unless it’s a statement signed in writing.

“Tabloids will pay for [his story] because it sells magazines, but that’s never printed,” Holloway added.

Natalee was on a high school senior trip when she vanished. The 18-year-old former Clinton resident was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a Dutchman raised in Aruba.

Van der Sloot is serving 28 years in prison for killing 21-year-old Peruvian student Stephany Flores Ramirez after meeting her in a Lima casino. Ramirez's slaying occurred five years to the day after Natalee's death.

Van der Sloot could be extradited to the United States to face charges he extorted and defrauded Holloway's mother, Beth — but it wouldn't be until 2038, when he finishes his sentence. In 2014 U.S. prosecutors alleged that Van der Sloot accepted $25,000 in cash from Beth Holloway in exchange for a promise to lead a lawyer for the family to Natalee's body in early 2010, just before he went to Peru.

"We've still got a long way to go to get justice," Dave Holloway said at the time.

Related Story: False Leads In Natalee Holloway Disappearance